Energy: PACE program.

Existing law authorizes a public agency and a property owner to enter into voluntary contractual assessments to finance the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources or energy or water efficiency improvements that are permanently affixed on real property (PACE financing program) . Existing law requires the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to establish a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Reserve program to assist local jurisdictions in financing, among other things, the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources or energy or water efficiency improvements on residential projects. Existing law requires the authority, in considering the eligibility of a public agency's PACE financing program for assistance under the PACE Reserve program, to consider whether the PACE program provides a loan that is less than 10% of the value of the property. This bill would require the authority to consider whether a PACE financing program provides financial assistance that is less than 15% of the value of the property, for up to the first $700,000, and less than 10% of the remaining value of the property above $700,000, and whether the PACE financing program limits the total mortgage-related debt and PACE financing from exceeding the value of the property.